Interview


Handle: PHS / Computerbrains Cracking Service (CCS)
(The e-mail address will probably cease to exist in November 1996.)

How did you come up with your alias ?
It's the initials of my name, Pxx Hxxxx Sxxxxxx.

City / Country:
Karlstad / Sweden

Born year:
1968

What was your first computer, and when did you get it?
VIC20 1982
C64 1983
AMIGA 1987

How did you get into the scene and what groups have you been a member of ?
I wanted to have all new games, and because I had the skills I started to crack new games in order to get them. I have cracked very many games for C64 in the years 1983-1987. I also traded a lot with other people by mail. In the Amiga days I did a lot of cracks for Defjam with Gehenna / Defjam supporting with originals.

What was the proudest moment in your career ?
On the C64, when I in the beginning of 1985 discovered and made my first cruncher, I released one of the first crunched one-filed cracks ever. On the Amiga in 1988, when I together with Il Scuro / Defjam, released one of the first compact-disks with five or more games on one disk with a boot selector.

For what specific reason(s) do you think that you are remembered ?
Cracking a lot of games which always was crunched to minimal size.
The 100 most remembered c64 tunes show.
CCS-Mon, a machinecode monitor for C64 which I wrote in 1985/86, and which also helped me a lot with cracking as it was on a Cartridge, but it could not freeze.

What would you like to be remembered for ?
For just doing as good work as I can, always trying to make the impossible possible. Remember also that in the C64 days, I didn't have a diskdrive until 1986, that's the main reason for that all my C64 cracks worked on Turbotape, even big games like Tour de france.

What made you stop the scene activity ? (and do you remember when?)
I have never really made a total stop in cracking, but I kind of stopped in 1989/90 when I joined the swedish army for a year. I did a short comeback in 1993 when I made some harddisk conversions of some games for amiga.

Thinking back on the good old days, is there anything you regret?
I should have made some more constructive programming like games. Actually I and Mr. Ale Rivinoja made a commercial game for the C64 in 1985 with the name Time Zero. I don't know if some other group ever did crack that game...

What was your favorite
GAME(S)
On Vic20: Skramble, Jelly Monsters
On C64: Delta, Terra cresta, Gyruss, Blue max, Impossible mission, Beachhead, Pharaoh's curse, Shamus, Sanxion.
On Amiga: R-Type, Dungeon master, Giana sisters, Might & Magic III, Turrican, Bubble bobble, Pinball fantasies.

DEMO(S)
On C64: Red October / Triad.

PROGRAMMER(S) (OR PROGRAMMING TEAM(S))
On C64: The people at Synapse, Imagine and Thalamus software.
On Amiga: Factor 5,

CRACKER(S) (OR CRACKING GROUP(S))
Mr.Z, Dynamic Duo

COMPOSER(S)
On C64: Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway.
On Amiga: Maniacs of Noise, Chris Huelbeck.

BEST COMPOSED TRACK(S)
R-Type (Amiga) , Delta (C64).

EVENT(S) (E.G. COPYPARTY)
Triad party winter 1987/88 in Stockholm / Sweden.

MEMORY(S)
In 1983 when I and Mr. Ale Rivinoja started Computerbrains.
In May 1987 when I bought my Amiga 500.

DRINK ?
Coke and Carlsberg beer.

What are you doing nowadays ?
Programming varius commercial stuff as games and boring business programs.

What are you doing on your spare time?
Programming shareware stuff as games and other useful things as a complete C64 emulator for varius systems like PC and UNIX. I will probably soon release a beta version of it for Sun sparcstations, so look out.

Is there anything you'd like to say to the public (read: admires)
I don't bother if a cracked game is released late, I would rather have a game that works ok at the first release. Also try to correct stupid errors that the original programmers have made. In my crackings, I always tried to make a better version of the game than the original! For example I removed as much of in-game loading as possible and tried to make the program in one part. I don't think anyone wants to wait more than some seconds to play again after game over. In this way you can teach the softwarehouses not to release crap to people who have paid their hard earned money for it.

What is the meaning of life?
Girls and computers. Just make yourself and others happy.